


If you've got a baseball bat it's not a date, or: Paco and Brenda Figure Stuff Out (Sort Of)

by thankyouturtle



Category: Blue Beetle (Comic), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Ghosts, Humor, Romance, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thankyouturtle/pseuds/thankyouturtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paco and Brenda are still trying to define their relationship. They just... don't always pick the best times to do so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you've got a baseball bat it's not a date, or: Paco and Brenda Figure Stuff Out (Sort Of)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anathomical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anathomical/gifts).



"This isn't a double date," Paco objected. The four of them - five, if you included Khaji-Da, which these days Jaime did - were seated in a large booth at a local pizzeria, drinking milkshakes now that their lust for tomato, cheese and crispy base was sated. At Paco's complaint - the response to Brenda saying she liked that they could double date when Traci was in town - Traci and Jaime exchanged a glance. They could make a fairly well-informed guess at how this conversation was going to go.

"This is totally a double date," Brenda replied, not noticing the by-play on the other side of the table. "Traci and Jaime? Dating. You and me? Dating, although at this moment I'm not sure exactly why. Therefore - double date."

"I thought we were just _hanging out_ ," Paco said. "Can't we just hang out any more? Why's everything got to be a date?"

Traci elbowed Jaime, hard, in the ribs, and he got the message and slid along his seat and out the side of the table. Brenda and Paco, already intent in their argument, didn't even notice them leaving. "Did they fight this much before they were going out?" Traci asked as they stepped outside, and Paco's cry of "Don't make this mathematical!" floated out after them.

[not fighting, flirting] Khaji-Da chittered inside Jaime's head.

"More, I think," Jaime said. "Although I kind of preferred it when every argument didn't end in a make-out session."

Traci leaned into him, twining her fingers with his. "You know, speaking of make-out sessions, weren't your parents going out this afternoon?" And so Jaime ignored what sounded like a wolf whistle from the Scarab, and let Traci lead him back to his house.

It was some time later that Brenda and Paco turned up, Brenda's cheeks suspiciously red, Paco's expression suspiciously smug. "Dude," he said, taking a seat next to Jaime on the couch with no apparent regard for the fact that Traci was sitting in his lap. "We've come up with a chart."

"A chart?" Traci sounded amused.

" _I_ came up with a chart," Brenda corrected her boyfriend. "An illustrated map of what counts as hanging out time and what counts as date time."

"So what are we doing now?" Jaime asked.

"Hanging out," his friends said together, and Paco passed him a brightly coloured piece of paper. Jaime wondered if they'd had to go and buy the paper and a set of markers, or if Brenda just carried them around for emergencies, and decided it was better not to ask. Besides, he was somewhat distracted by Khaji-Da, who was giving him a long list of scenarios that apparently could not be categorised as either "hanging out" or "dating" using the criteria on Paco's chart.

"Better just to let it go, buddy," he murmured, and Traci, who was used to Jaime's one way conversations, rested her head on his shoulder and whispered, "How long is it going to last, do you think?"

***

It lasted a week and a half, and probably would have been longer if the five of them had not found themselves, improbably, in an abandoned mine, hunting for the spirit of a lost child.

"I hate ghosts." That was Traci, in the front - the tunnels were so narrow they had to walk in single file, and her current staff gave off good light. Holy light, actually, according to her, but there were some things that Jaime preferred not to think about.

"I'm not exactly a huge fan myself," Jaime called. As the Blue Beetle he could see in the dark, which meant he was stuck at the end of their line, Brenda just in front of him, Paco behind Traci.

"They're always so needy." Traci's voice floated back to him.

"Not to mention creepy," he replied.

Then Paco had to ask, "Hey Brenda, is this a date?"

"Of course it's not a date," the redhead said. "Paco, what about this scenario screams 'date' to you?"

"It's the two of us doing a pre-planned activity," Paco said. "That's, like, criteria number one."

"And you're carrying a baseball bat and we're not playing baseball, which is a pretty good indication that we're just ha-- and why _are_ you carrying a baseball bat, anyway? Ghosts are _intangible_."

"Not always!" Traci called back, at the same time that Khaji-Da chirped [not always!] and Jaime's head was filled with anecdotal evidence of ghosts and spectres in bodily form, including an annotated list of people who claimed to have had sex with a ghost.

"Ke$ha?" he asked, interested despite himself. "Really?"

But Paco was not to be dissuaded from his point. "It's dark," he said. "That makes it a date. Plus, you're totally holding my hand."

Brenda snorted. "Dream on, Paco. You're the one who couldn't let go of my hand during Paranormal Investigation 2. In this relationship you're the frightened girl needing to hang on to her big, strong, manly boyfriend for protection."

They walked on for a while in silence only broken by the occasional sound of a rock being accidentally kicked along the ground. "Uh, Traci? Are _you_ holding my hand?"

Jaime's vision was good enough to see her shake her head, even from back here. "Got both of them on my staff, Paco."

"Jaime?"

"Not on your life," Jaime said.

"...Scarab?" Paco asked, his voice cracking, and Khaji-Da said [uh-oh] just as Traci's staff flickered, and went out.

***

The debate didn't resume until much later that night, when Traci had left to dispose of a crystal which now held an angry ghost and Jaime's mother had dressed Paco's grazes and put his arm in a sling. "The way you yelled at that ghost? Totally a date," he began, and as Brenda opened her mouth to reply Jaime found that he'd really had enough of the whole thing.

"Why is this such a big _deal_ to you guys?" he demanded. "Why do you have to define what you're doing all the time?"

Brenda's mouth snapped shut, Paco stopped slouching in his chair, and the two of them looked at each other, and then looked away.

"I haven't really dated anyone before..."

"I don't want to do the wrong thing..."

Jaime groaned. "I know. I mean, I'm nervous around Traci all the time, but - can't you guys just spend time together without worrying about what it means?"

[more kissing] Kahji-Da agreed.

Paco tucked his good hand behind his neck, looking embarrassed. "I guess I've kind of been bugging out a little over the whole thing..."

"We could definitely ease up on the..." Brenda waved an arm. "The everything." She leaned over and poked Paco in the ribs, which made him wince. "What say me and you go get ice creams and don't worry about the deeper significance of our actions?"

"You lost me after 'ice cream'." Paco stood, with a little effort, and gave Jaime a lopsided grin. "Sorry, dude. We're just still figuring it out, is all." Jaime nodded, hopeful that maybe now they _would_ be able to figure it out. But as the couple left, he was pretty sure he could hear Paco saying, "If I'm paying for everything this totally counts as a date."

[only if simultaneously staking vampires] Khaji-Da said, and Jaime sighed, and laughed.


End file.
